Ikiru

Japan/1952 — directed by Akira Kurosawa | 143 min.

One of the greatest achievements in the brilliant career of Akira Kurosawa, Ikiru (To Live) finds the director at his most compassionate—affirming life through an intimate exploration of death. Takashi Shimura delivers an indelible performance as Kanji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat who has spent decades behind a desk without joy or a sense of accomplishment. 

Now, faced with a diagnosis of stomach cancer, he becomes desperate to find meaning in his remaining days. Written and directed with profound humanistic clarity, Ikiru is a masterful, timeless meditation on what it means to truly live.

"Were it the only film Kurosawa ever made, his name would be rightfully engraved on film history." —Nick Pinkerton, The Village Voice